Happy Holidays :: Christmas with the King. What a Wonderful Way to Spend Your Holiday! (December, 1963)

 

 

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Carrying a Torch for Torchy! (January, 1937)

 

 

 

Glenda Farrell is awesome. That is all.

Smart Blonde (1937) Warner Bros. Pictures / EP: Jack L. Warner, Hal B. Wallis / P: Bryan Foy / D: Frank McDonald / W: Kenneth Gamet, Frederick Nebel / C: Warren Lynch / E: Frank Magee / M: Heinz Roemheld / S: Glenda Farrell, Barton MacLane, Tom Kennedy, Wini Shaw, Addison Richards, Jane Wyman

Lady Luck (1936) Chesterfield Motion Pictures Corporation / P: George R. Batcheller / D: Charles Lamont / W: John W. Krafft, Dorrell McGowan, Stuart E. McGowan / C: M.A. Anderson / S: Patricia Farr, William Bakewell, Lulu McConnell, Duncan Renaldo, Iris Adrian

Da’King Lives! :: Excitement and Adventure Under the Sea! (June, 1967)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Here it is, folks. The absolute zenith, the pinnacle for all perpetuity, the most absurdest buffoonery ever befallen, the most absolute gob-smacking brain-bending smack-down to ever occur in the annals of cinema: a dueling duet between Elvis Presley and Elsa Lanchester. That’s right: it’s the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll vs. the Bride of Frankenstein in a little number I like to call…
 

Video courtesy of Brittany Reilander

 

That. Is. AWESOME!

 
This post was part of Da’King Lives, which originated back in January of 2010, to help celebrate the King of Rock-n-Roll’s 75th birthday and throw a spotlight on his fine, fractured forays into feature film.
 

Other Points of Interest:

Full film review of Easy Come, Easy Go at the Brewery.

Easy Come, Easy Go (1967) Hal B. Wallis Productions :: Paramount Pictures / EP: Joseph H. Hazen / P: Hal B. Wallis / AP: Paul Nathan / D: John Rich / W: Allan Weiss, Anthony Lawrence / C: William Margulies / E: Archie Marshek / M: Joseph J. Lilley / S: Elvis Presley, Dodie Marshall, Pat Priest, Pat Harrington, Skip Ward, Elsa Lanchester

Da’King Lives! :: Hey, Rube! (December, 1964)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
When his latest gig goes up in smoke after losing his temper and brawling with several unruly audience members, our boy hits the open road in search of work. Luckily, he runs into a job at the local carnival — well, more like the job ran into him, when an overprotective father runs Charlie off the road for making the goo-goo on his daughter. Anyways, as Charlie tries his best to live up to the Carnie Code and win the girl, he soon becomes this one-lung operation’s last hope of turning things around as his romantic serenading starts drawing record crowds.
 

Video courtesy of MFFforever.

 
It was while filming Roustabout that the shit kind of hit the fan between producer Hal Wallis and the Presley camp for comments made about financing more high-brow fare like Becket with the prophets from these low-ballin’ Presley pictures. Roustabout was the third movie Wallis managed to coax out of Presley in 1964, making it the bottom piece of sandwich that also included Kissin’ Cousins and Viva Las Vegas. And, for the record, the big Hollywood Mystery Feature was Jerry Lewis’ The Disorderly Orderly.
 
This post was part of Da’King Lives, which originated back in January of 2010, to help celebrate the King of Rock-n-Roll’s 75th birthday and throw a spotlight on his fine, fractured forays into feature film.
 

Other Points of Interest:

Full film review of Roustabout at the Brewery.

Roustabout (1964) Hal Wallis Productions :: Paramount Pictures / EP: Joseph H. Hazen / P: Hal Wallis / AP: Paul Nathan / D: John Rich / W: Anthony Lawrence, Allan Weiss / C: Lucien Ballard / E: Warren Low / M: Joseph J. Lilley / S: Elvis Presley, Barbara Stanwyck, Joan Freeman, Leif Erickson, Pat Butrum, Norman Grabowski

Da’King Lives! :: Sadly, This Drive-In Double Feature is About as Close as He Ever Got to an Actual World Tour… (August, 1965)

 

 

 

 

And good luck getting this number out of your head:

 

Video courtesy of hitmewitdarock.

You’re welcome.

 
This post was part of Da’King Lives, which originated back in January of 2010, to help celebrate the King of Rock-n-Roll’s 75th birthday and throw a spotlight on his fine, fractured forays into feature film.
 

Fun in Acapulco (1963) Hal Wallis Productions :: Paramount Pictures / EP: Joseph H. Hazen / P: Hal B. Wallis / AP: Paul Nathan / D: Richard Thorpe / W: Allan Weiss / C: Daniel L. Fapp / E: Stanley E. Johnson / M: Joseph J. Lilley / S: S: Elvis Presley, Ursula Andress, Elsa Cárdenas, Paul Lukas, Larry Domasin, Alejandro Rey

It Happened at the World’s Fair (1963) Ted Richmond Productions :: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) / P: Ted Richmond / D: Norman Taurog / W: Si Rose, Seaman Jacobs / C: Joseph Ruttenberg / E: Fredric Steinkamp / M: Leith Stevens / S: Elvis Presley, Joan O’Brien, Gary Lockwood, Vicky Tiu, H.M. Wynant, Yvonne Craig, Kurt Russell

Da’King Lives! :: Ride the Crest of the Wave Right into a Paradise of Songs! (December, 1961)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Change a couple of character names and you could easily pass off Blue Hawaii as a direct sequel to Elvis Presley’s G.I. Blues. Here, the action picks up when our boy returns home to the islands after his discharge from the army, where a life in the family pineapple business awaits him — if only he were inclined to the prickly fruit, which he ain’t. So, instead, our boy enjoys life as a tour guide / beach bum until a misunderstanding between a grab-fanny tourist and his jealous girlfriend leads, once more, to the inevitable split, which then leads to the even more predictable reconciliation as the Action Man Elvis Movie template solidified itself even further. The first of Presley’s Hawaiian Island trilogy (along with Girls, Girls, Girls and Paradise, Hawaiian Style), Blue Hawaii also, I think, boasts the best soundtrack album from the breezy main title theme to this gonzoidal classic:
 

Video courtesy of  MFFforever.

 
… A song, of which, I already wrote an open apology letter to Dolores Fuller for co-writing it, but what I’m really thankful to this movie for is this little number:
 

Video courtesy of vunhan.

 
This post was part of Da’King Lives, which originated back in January of 2010, to help celebrate the King of Rock-n-Roll’s 75th birthday and throw a spotlight on his fine, fractured forays into feature film.
 

Blue Hawaii (1961) Hal Wallis Productions :: Paramount Pictures / P: Hal B. Wallis / AP: Paul Nathan / D: Norman Taurog / W: Hal Kanter / C: Charles Lang / E: Charles Lang / M: Joseph J. Lilley / S: Elvis Presley, Joan Blackman, Angela Lansbury, Roland Winters, Nancy Walters, Howard McNear, Christian Kay

Da’King Lives! :: He Sings, She Swings in the Rousing, Rollicking Story of American’s Ever-Lovin’ G.I.’s! (December, 1960)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

G.I. Blues was Elvis Presley’s first film when his hitch in the army came to an end. Appropriate, right? However, the film was also a turning point in The Big E’s film career. And for better or worse, for Elvis, it was turn that set the template for almost all the films that followed.

 

Video courtesy of 1957now.

 
This post was part of Da’King Lives, which originated back in January of 2010, to help celebrate the King of Rock-n-Roll’s 75th birthday and throw a spotlight on his fine, fractured forays into feature film.
 

Other Points of Interest:

Full film review of G.I. Blues at 3B Theater.

G.I. Blues (1960) Hal Wallis Productions :: Paramount Pictures / P: Hal B. Wallis / AP: Paul Nathan / D: Norman Taurog / W: Edmund Beloin, Henry Garson / C: Loyal Griggs / E: Warren Low / M: Joseph J. Lilley / S: Elvis Presley, Juliet Prowse, Robert Ivers, Arch Johnson, Letícia Román, Sigrid Maier, Jeremy Slate

Now Showing :: October, 1948

 

 

A Wild Western Whodunit (August, 1968)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Other Points of Interest:

Full film review of Five Card Stud at the Brewery.

Five Card Stud (1968) Paramount Pictures / EP: Hal B. Wallis / P: Joseph H. Hazen, Paul Nathan / D: Henry Hathaway / W: Marguerite Roberts / C: Daniel L. Fapp / M: Maurice Jarre / S: Dean Martin, Robert Mitchum, Roddy McDowall, Yaphet Kotto, Katherine Justice, Inger Stevens